Whitsunday Islands
We woke up at around 07:00 the morning of Saturday the 19th of May. As we started to pack the stuff we were going to bring with us to the boat, we realised something was not right. Did we have enough beer for the weekend? Yes. Were we allowed to bring to the boat the types of beers we had? No. Why? Because we had 24 bottles (made of glass) and glass was not allowed in the boat. Remember that scene from The Simpsons where Homer gets crazy because he has no beer or TV? Well, we didn’t care much about TV but we felt devastated after realising we were going to have to leave 24 bottles of beer behind… and spend a weekend on a boat without beer.
Of course, we tried to find a solution but none of the ideas we came up with would work. Like, we thought about going to a bottle shop and buy some beers but all the shops were closed until 09:00. We thought about trying to sneak in some beers but we rejected the idea because it would have been too obvious and we didn’t want to take the risk (and we are very good people, right?) So, we spent sometime trying to be strong (like Bárcenas and Rajoy) and… finally we started to walk without looking back.
We arrived to the Marina and after finding the meeting point and saying hello to the people in charge, we went to check if any of the cafeterias that were opened at that time would sell us alcohol lol. The answer was negative. So, we then decided for real to let it go and focus on the weekend (until we came onto the boat and saw everyone with their beers, damn!)
We met the rest of the passengers and got onto the Samurai to start our weekend sailing around the Whitsundays. The overall status of the boat was O.K. but out of the two showers available, there was just one working. The captain was not the nicest person in the boat but, thankfully, the two young guys who were helping him out were way nicer.
After paying attention to the security procedure and confirming we had understood what it was and wasn’t allowed on the boat, we set sail. In the beginning, the weather was alright and the colour of the blue water was marvelous. However, as we kept on sailing forward, the weather starting to change dramatically. At one point, we all were sitting outside completely freezing. The alternative was getting inside (like where you have the kitchen and the rooms) and trying to hang to something not to fall. The wind made the water really rough and even trying not to puke was something that required a lot of effort from us. So, as you can see, we found ourselves in a hell of a situation.
After what it felt like days and days, (obviously it wasn’t days but just some hours) we arrived to one of the anchored points where we stopped to have lunch. The lunch was alright, but nothing spectacular (compared to what I’ve seen in other boats or similar tours). After having lunch we set sail again, but (thanks God) for a shorter time.
We anchored the boat one more time and we got our bag and wetsuit ready; we were taken by a small launch to the entrance of Whitehaven Beach. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the Whitehaven Beach is one of the most iconic and beautiful beaches within the Whitsunday Island, which, along with other 73 islands, form the well-known “Whitsunday Islands”. As its name implies and as you can see below, it was truly a “white haven”.
After following a path for like 10-15 minutes we arrived to the Hill Inlet Lookout, “the place”. The views I had in front of me were somehow different to the ones I had already seen in some pictures. The reason? The weather. Depending on the weather (and on the tide) you might see different patterns in the sand and in the water. Regardless of not being the same I saw in some pictures, the views were breathtaking: beautiful whirlpools of blue colours surrounded by hues of white and green. Welcome to paradise on Earth!
We walked around for some time awing at every step we took. Unfortunately, with every step, the weather was getting worse and worse. However, precisely because of that, we were one of the few lucky ones who got to see not just one but two rainbows in Whitehaven. How many of you can you say that? xD. As the people started to walk back to the main path, I stayed around for a bit and I was lucky enough to see a small shark swimming in the very shallow waters. After that moment of magic, I realized it was starting to rain and I joined the rest of the guys to go back to the beach where the launch should pick us up.
Again, another experience far from great. We were completely soaked and we had to wait almost 20 minutes before they came to pick us up. One of the guys was trying to reach out to the captain by walkie but he wouldn’t answer. By the time he finally answered, we were tired, angry and really wet! (“First” world problems…)
Once back on the boat and after taking a quick hot shower, we got ready to sail to another anchor point from where we would do some snorkeling next morning. As the sun was setting, we were surprised by some cute dolphins who were swimming right behind us. What a nice way to finish a “funny” journey.
Once the boat was “calm and quiet”, it was time for us to have some dinner. After that, it would have been time for us to have some beers but ups, we had none :(. We had some chats with the rest of the passengers and after a couple of hours we decided it was time for us to have some rest.
Next morning we woke up kind of early to get breakfast and get ready to go snorkeling. We went snorkeling twice in two different locations. Unfortunately, like the previous day, the weather was far from great and that led to our snorkeling experience not being the best, mostly because of the low visibility we had. As we couldn’t fight the weather, we tried to make the most out of our time there until finally the time was up (way earlier than it should have been) and we were called to come back to the boat.
We took a shower, had some lunch and got ready to go back to Airlie Beach (3 hours earlier than expected). As I mentioned before, my experience was Samurai was not the best, so I wouldn’t recommend you to go with them. Nevertheless, I’ve just checked out their web and apparently they are no longer operating, so, no need to worry 🙂
Back on firm land, the first thing we did as soon as we got to our beloved Time Machine, was to open the esky and get a couple of beers. So much thirst accumulated after the weekend! After re-hydrating ourselves, we went to some sort of artificial beach/pool next to the Marina, took a bath and then went to Woolworth to buy some food and get ready to hit the road yet once again.
ChaBalES sailing the Whitsunday Islands
Magnetic Island: will we get our Open Water certification?
Once we got our Time Machine full with food and drinks, we started driving to our next destination: Magnetic Island. I remember on the way there we stopped in Bowen, a famous city for backpackers on visa 462 who look for a place above the Tropic of Capricorn to extend their visa. We stopped there and I handed some resumes in some bars and restaurants, but most of the work available in that town was on the tomato crop sector.
We left Bowen behind and we kept on driving all the way to Townsville, the biggest city over the Tropic of Capricorn with 165000 inhabitants. Because we needed to take the ferry very early in the morning to be able to be at the diving school at 08:00, we thought it would be a waste of money to go to a hostel for such a short time. So, we did what we had already done other times during our Australian road trip: we found a “hidden” street, got some dinner and fell asleep on the most comfortable place on Earth (yes, the seats of the Time Machine).
We woke up at 06:00 and headed to the port to take the ferry to Magnetic Island. By the way, in case you are wondering where the island got its name from, as pretty much the whole Australia, it came from the captain James Cook, who, as he was approaching the island, felt the compass was not working as it should and thought it was due to the “magnetic effect” of the island, which hasn’t been proved right up till today 🙂
As I wrote earlier in one of the previous posts, back in Sydney, we tried (without luck) to get our Open Water Certification. Because the plan didn’t work out the way we envisioned it, and because we really wanted to get our Open Water Certification together in Australia, after doing some research, we found a 3-day course for 350 AUD in Magnetic Island. So, at 08:00 we arrived at the front door of Pleasure Divers, the diving school where (hopefully) we would be getting certified after 3 days.
After meeting Anne, (our Dutch instructor) a German guy and a French girl, (hello Manon!) we got in the school and had a little chat with Anne about the structure of the course and what we were going to do during the same. After that, it was time for less talking and more action and so we jumped in the pool and got ready to do the first two tests: swimming 200 meters and floating for 10 minutes (with the only help of our bodies and minds).
It wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve done in the world but it was a little bit exhausting, specially taking into account that I was far from being in a good shape. That being said, I would say anyone who can swim should be able to succeed at both tests.
Once we were done with the pool tests, we got dry and went back into the school to take the other test: the written one. Again, if you have done all the E-learning training and took all the sample tests, you should not have any problems to pass the tests, just as we all four did.
We then went back to the pool to learn some diving techniques like: clearing water from mask and regulator, controlling our buoyancy (I’m still trying to get there after 10 dives) and some other stuff. Before long, we were done for the day and we went to what it was going to be our house for the next 2 days: X Base.
We had checked some reviews before going and the hostel looked nice, but what we found there once we arrived was even better. I would say that hostel was in our top 3, along with Arts Factory Lodge in Byron Bay and YHA in Port Lincoln. Basically, the hostel is right in front of the ocean, so you have a beach to yourself. Then, you have some hammocks to lay down, plenty of bungalows to sleep, a huge bar with a nice terrace and a camping area, the one where we set up our tent for the second time in the road trip.
After taking a shower and getting some food, we went to the bar to get some drinks and get to know some of the people there. The fact that the hostel had some games like bingo, roulette and some other games alike, helped us getting to break the ice and meeting other people. We ended up doing the “little train” and dancing with everyone around the bar.
We were having fun for some hours when we realized that we needed to wake up next morning kind of early to go back to the pool and then to the ocean to do our first two dives. Thus, we walked the path up to our tent and surrendered to fatigue.
Next morning we woke up at around 07:00 and after having breakfast we drove to Pleasure Divers. After meeting Anne and our colleagues, we went straight to the pool to keep on working and learning different techniques that we would use while being in the underwater world. After being in the pool for some hours, we had some lunch and then we walked to the beach to have our first two dives.
The reason why doing the Open Water in Magnetic Island is cheaper than in other places is because the dives can be done without a boat, you can literally walk into the water with the tank on your back. The downside of this is that, since you are not very far away from the beach, if the weather is kind of windy, your visibility will be terrible. And that’s what happened to us. We went into the water twice with a 3 meter visibility… 3 meters is almost nothing and that made everything way harder (and of course, we didn’t enjoy the underwater world as much). The good thing about that though is that once you are able to dive with such visibility, when you go to the good spots, everything should be way smoother.
The two dives were done to recreate all the exercises we did in the pool and to make sure we would be able to “survive” under the water. Once Anne made sure we went through all the exercises just alright, we went back to the diving shop and, from there, we drove our car back to X Base. Ah, almost forgot, before we stopped at a grocery shop (no Woolworth or Aldis here) and we bought some food and the typical afternoon ice-cream lol.
Back at X Base we did the same thing we did the night before: eat, drink, dance, repeat. After several hours of just doing the last three, we decided it was time to go to our comfy air mattresses and catch some sleep to get ready for our next and (hopefully) final day.
Next morning, after getting breakfast and packing everything, (we thought about staying one more night but in the end we decided to go to Townsville to check a different “landscape” at night) we went back to Pleasure Divers to meet Anne and our colleagues one more time and… to try to get our Open Water Certificate :). That morning we went straight to the ocean for our third dive, where we got to do some more exercises needed to be able to get the certification. The visibility was still far from great, but we made it through.
The last dive was the best one, because by then, we already had some experience. It also helped the fact that that dive was left alone to “enjoy”, rather than to go through some exercises again. After coming back to the surface, we started to walk to the diving school one last time. On the way there, I still clearly remember the feeling of happiness and peace we were enjoying. The views were amazing and we felt we had given our best so, what else can you ask for?
Once back at the school, Anne congratulated us all and told us we had become Open Water Certified! Hell yeah! The first step to start exploring the beautiful underwater world! I felt really happy with our achievement, not just because we could start diving without spending too much money, (the one required to pay the instructor) but also because we did it after the failure of Sydney and… because we did it both Chaves and I together in Australia 🙂
Celebrating in Townsville: we made it!
After thanking Anne (she was really nice and helpful throughout the whole time we spent with her and I really recommend her school if you feel like getting the Open Water in Magnetic Island) and our colleagues, we took Manon in our car and we drove all 3 to the port to take the ferry to Townsville. Once in Townsville, we went to one of the main streets to get a proper dinner and celebrate our milestone. After enjoying the food and the wine, I took advantage of the area where we were and handed some resumes. Next, we walked around trying to find a nice bar/pub to have some drinks and some fun.
We found a pretty nice nice Irish Bar and we decided to spend sometime there having some beers. What it should have been a short time became in several hours, where we got people emotional after listening to my beautiful voice singing “With or Without you”. We then got them crazy singing and dancing “La Macarena”. Like always, the bar closed earlier than we wanted and we were forced to leave. Luckily for us, on the way back to the car, we run into a very “special” old Aussie man and we joined him singing and playing some traditional Aussie music 🙂
After walking for sometime we got in our car and drove back to the “hidden” street where we had spent the first night we arrived in Townsville, and we fell asleep on our beloved Time Machine’s seats.
ChaBalES getting Open Water certified in Magnetic Island
Next morning, still with the feeling of joy in our bodies, we woke up, packed our stuff and got ready to hit the road once again. Our next destination was Cairns: the last stop of our Australian road trip. Before getting to Cairns though we decided to go to take a look at the city of Townsville and its surroundings from the Castle Hill. You can go there by foot but we were in no shape whatsoever and we drove all the way up with our Time Machine.
From Townsville to Cairns
Once there we enjoyed some amazing views for a little while before we decided to get back to the road. We had a little bit more than 4 hours ahead of us and we were kind of tired. That, plus its appealing name, made us stop to have a break and lunch at Mission Beach.
Once again, we were kind of unlucky with the weather. As soon as we stepped on the beach it started raining, and we had to get in our car to finish having lunch. The best thing though was that on the way to the beach, we were able to catch a glimpse of a cassowary, one of the most beautiful animals I’ve seen in my life. Their beauty matches their aggressiveness. They can grow up to 2 meters (they are one of the biggest birds in the world only surpassed by the ostrich and emu) and they can run up to 50 km/h.
After enjoying lunch and having a little rest we went back to hit the road once again. This time though was the last one. In like 2 hours we would be arriving in Cairns, the last stop of our road trip. As we were getting into the city, we checked booking.com and we decided to stay in the cheapest hostel we found: Red Key Hostel. The price matched the setup and organization of the hostel but, to be fair, for just 2-3 days, it was alright.
ChaBalES driving from Townsville to Cairns
Cairns
We took a shower and then went outside to get to know the city a little bit better. We checked out the Night Markets (perfect place to buy some souvenirs and get some food from different parts of the world) and then we had dinner in a Greek restaurant. As we were eating and drinking we saw a blond girl approaching, who started to talk to the manager. We would meet that girl latter next day to have some fun in Gilligan’s (one of the main clubs in Cairns) and I would meet her many more times during my time in Cairns, but that’s another story. I just want to take advantage of these lines to thank her for her help and kindness throughout my time in Cairns. Thanks Mónica, I hope you are already showing your skills to Mr. Miyagi 😉
We left the Greek restaurant and started to walk to the Lagoon (an artificial pool/beach). From there we kept on walking till The Pier Bar, where we learnt that every Thursday it was Salsa night and where we tried to show our “skills” for a little while. Once we finished with our performance we went back to the hostel to catch some sleep.
Next morning we went for a walk around the city and I started to hand some resumes. As I would learn later on, Cairns was not an easy city when it came to finding work. But that’s yet another story. Back then, after handing some resumes, we went to have lunch and we laid down on the Lagoon to enjoy the weather for some time. After that, we decided to pay a visit to the Casino to try our luck with Keno one more time.
Yes, it was the same game again, the one where we chose 20 numbers and we could win quite some money if we didn’t guess any of them. And… We won again! We won something like 200 AUD and we decided to take 50 AUD each and go play the roulette. Chaves was explaining to me the way the roulette worked and what was the best way to play. That went on for like 30 minutes. During that time, he made some money and lost some as well, but, overall, he was winning. During that time, I didn’t bet a single time, I was just focused thinking.
Suddenly, I decided it was time for me to get into the game and I bet something like 15 dollars on number 10 plus some other bets on even numbers and one on the thirds of the table. Some seconds passed and we saw the ball stopping on number… 10! Fuck yeah! Veni, vidi, vici! I remember the croupier was like wtf?! She was like you were there for 30 minutes without doing anything and now in a single bet you destroyed the table. Haha, yes, that’s what we did! After getting our 500 AUD in cash we left the Casino and went back to the hostel to get ready to a night to remember: the last night of Chaves in Australia.
With all the fresh cash we went to the Marina to have some fancy dinner. The lucky restaurant was “Dundee’s” and we enjoyed an amazing dinner by the ocean.
After having dinner and its mandatory cocktails, we asked the waiter where we could go to have some fun and we arrived at PJ’s O’Brien’s, an Irish pub with a great ambience. We drank several beers and, after talking to Monica (whose number we got the night before at the Greek restaurant) we went to Gilligan’s, a backpacker hostel with a huge club inside.
The club had different dance floors with different type of music. It also had different bars which we visited several times haha. After several drinks and several dances and several dance floors, like always, the club was closing and it was time for us to go. We said goodbye to Monica we went back to the hostel to sleep for a couple of hours before Chave’s checkout (I was staying a couple of days more to decide what to do with my life lol).
After having breakfast and arranging all our luggage (specially Chave’s ones) we went back to our car to drive to our destiny. It was really sad driving him to the airport. We spent one month travelling together and just like that our amazing Australian road trip was over. That road trip was one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life. We travelled together for almost 8000 km. If I had done a similar road trip from my village back home, it would have looked similar to this:
We slept in the car, in camping grounds and in different hostels. We met many different people. We saw incredible landscapes and animals: the great white shark, the kangaroo, the koala and the cassowary. We got our Open Water certified in Magnetic Island. We drove 1700 km in one day. We visited 4 different states. We had deep conversations under a starry sky. We did many more things that I’m probably forgetting but, the most important of all was that, for a month, we were FREE. Life passes by so fast that we have to be careful not to waste it. As I was driving him to the airport I was sad because our Australian road trip was over, but, at the same time, I was happy because I knew that the countdown to meet and travel again had already started 😉
ChaBalES in Cairns
Thanks for reading and till the next post 😉
